Oilmen go where oil is discovered and, generally, midstream operators follow. Today, the oil is in the Bakken unconventional play of North Dakota. Fortunately, one midstream operator, Belle Fourche and Bridger pipelines, part of the True Companies, was already there and raring to go.

The first of the True companies was formed in 1948 when H.A. 'Dave' True, Jr. moved from Cody, Wyoming, to Casper to work as a manager and part owner of the one-rig Reserve Drilling Co. After nearly bankrupting during the brutal 1949 blizzards, the small firm grew to a five rotary-drill rig operation by 1951. That year, together with Douglas S. Brown, True Cos. bought out the other owners of Reserve Drilling and formed the True and Brown Drilling Contractors partnership. In 1953, the two formed the True and Brown Oil Producers partnership, and in 1954, True purchased Brown's interests and, in partnership with his wife, Jean, changed the names to True Drilling Co. and True Oil Co.

Since then, the True family has formed Black Hills Trucking Inc., Belle Fourche Pipeline, Cambria Europe Inc., Eighty-Eight Oil LLC, Equitable Oil Purchasing Co., Midland Financial Corp. (Hilltop National Bank), Toolpushers Supply Co. and True Ranches LLC. The True associated companies employ about 875 people Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and continues to be family owned.

One of the major challenges is trying to identify what exactly the Bakken will look like over the next five to 10 years and to try to right size the infrastructure accordingly.

Today the True Cos. owns and operates the Belle Fourche and Bridger Pipelines, along with other assets that make up some 3,500 miles of pipeline systems in western North Dakota, eastern Montana and Wyoming. Together, Belle Fourche, Butte and Bridger transport nearly 250,000 barrels of oil per day from the Powder River and Williston Basins to delivery points that serve Guernsey, Gillette, Casper and Clearbrook markets.

Tad True is vice president of Belle Fourche and Bridger Pipelines and has been with the pipeline group of True Cos. since 2004. He began his career with Arthur Andersen and later became director of finance for Jones Brothers Trucking. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor of business administration degree.

He was appointed by Wyoming Governor, Dave Freudenthal, to the International Oil and Gas Compact Commission to investigate pipeline constraints and price differentials, and currently serves on the board of directors for Jones Brothers Trucking and Butte Pipe Line. He is the chairman of the Transportation Committee for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, a director of the North Dakota Petroleum Council and is a transportation committee member for the Montana Petroleum Association.

Today, Bridger and Belle Fourche are building new projects to serve the prolific oil industry in North Dakota, including its upcoming project, the Baker 300, an ambitious pipeline-connection system covering North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming that, when completed, will have 300,000 barrels per day coming into Baker and leaving Baker. As importantly, it will ensure that most oil-producing wells in western North Dakota will be no farther than 30 miles from pipeline access.

MIDSTREAM: Will you always work in the energy industry?

TRUE: Yes. The company I work for is a family business. I grew up with the business and I’ve always known I was going to come back to the business and work here. I most likely will never leave. Besides, I am not sure who would hire me.

MIDSTREAM: What is the latest news on your Baker 300?

TRUE: The first step of the Baker 300 was the completion of the Four Bears line, which is an extension of the Little Missouri Pipeline. That is an 80-mile, 12-inch pipeline and it is currently being filled with oil as we speak. That is the first leg of it. We will have that up and running in July with about 55,000 barrels per day, and then we will continue to expand it throughout the summer until it gets to about 80,000 barrels per day. That is the first step of the Baker 300. Concurrently, we are also expanding the Butte system that the Four Bears line feeds into. That should be expanded from its current capacity of about 120,000 barrels per day to 140,000 by next month. We will add some more boosters toward the end of the year to get the whole system up to 150,000 barrels per day.

MIDSTREAM: What are your plans for next year?

TRUE: In 2012, we will start laying a new 90- to 95-mile trunk line that will run from Baker, Montana, to Alzada, Montana, where it hooks up with some of our existing Belle Fourche infrastructure. That line will be able to take Bakken barrels from the Williston basin down into Casper and on to Salt Lake, in addition to providing additional capacity into the Guernsey market as well.

MIDSTREAM: It’s such an exciting project, considering the lack of infrastructure in the Bakken.

TRUE: We’re very excited about the project. We’ve completed two separate open seasons. The first open season, Phase I, which was the 90 mile loop, was successful and we are moving forward. The second open season was our connection to the Keystone XL line. That was very successful as well, and provided XL receives their Presidential Permit, we will move forward. Both phases of the Baker 300 are moving forward and we are very excited about the amount of interest we’ve gotten.

MIDSTREAM: What if the Keystone XL Line is not completed?

TRUE: We have two separate two separate contingency plans that I am not prepared to talk about.

MIDSTREAM: Do you have anchor customers yet?

TRUE: Yes, but I can’t specify who our customers are. We are required to maintain confidentiality. But I will say that we received broad industry support.

MIDSTREAM: What are the greatest challenges to developing this type of infrastructure for the Bakken?

TRUE: I would have to say that the number one challenge is the weather. This past year has seen some absolutely extreme weather. I just read a report this morning that the flooding in North Dakota is the highest that it’s been in over 60 years. Trying to build an infrastructure in this environment is incredibly difficult and expensive. The other major challenge is trying to right size the projects that you have going. You have a lot of different production forecasts which give highly different scenarios of production estimates.

MIDSTREAM: What are some of those estimates you are hearing?

TRUE: Some people say North Dakota will top out at 700,000 barrels per day, and other people say it will top out at more than a million barrels per day. The difference there could be four separate interstate pipelines. One of the major challenges is trying to identify what, exactly, the Bakken will look like over the next five to 10 years and to try to right size the infrastructure accordingly.

MIDSTREAM: Do you have any idea about which estimate is closest to true?

TRUE: I’m generally agnostic. I really don’t have a sense of the type of volumes we are looking at yet. What’s important for our company is to prepare for both scenarios.

MIDSTREAM: What do you hope to accomplish by the end of this year?

TRUE: We hope to bring the Baker 150, our main line, up to 150,000 barrels per day and get , Four Bears fully operational at 80,000 barrels per day. We want to continue to build up the gathering infrastructure so we can continue to alleviate the production constraints the Bakken producers are experiencing.

MIDSTREAM: And, personally?

TRUE: I want to fly fish with my kids as much as I can. I’ll keep my favorite stream a secret.